Getting to Know My Spanish Hometown a Little Better

Location: Madrid

About a month ago I took a weekend trip out to Paris to visit a friend who was spending a semester studying nearby. This particular post covers the reverse of those travels when she came to visit Madrid.

Her plane landed a bit late on Friday night, making us a bit rushed to make our first event on time which was a Flamenco show. And I also had difficulty finding the place, but after inquiring some locals we made it just fine. Oddly enough, no one knew it by name but immediately knew where I wanted to go when they heard Flamenco.

The restaurant is called "Casa Patas" and holds nightly Flamenco shows in a back room. Somehow I hadn't managed to enjoy this cultural aspect, but several people spoke highly of their experience and especially this place for being authentic. Not that I would know the difference, but most of the audience seemed to be locals, which I figure is always a good sign.

According to my program, the place books different bands almost every other week. I don't pretend to know a whole lot about the complicated world of Flamenco (you may read more here if you wish), but I knew a few things such as it's a mix of song & dance.

For our performance, there were two guitarists (although I'm told the guitars are slightly different than the normal ones), one drummer, two singers/hand clappers, and sometimes a dancer. The band would often perform a piece alone before the dancer came out. This is one of the shots with them all on stage.

And a pretty good video of the experience as well. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures or video, so it'll be our little secret...

Very cool, right?

If I remember correctly, the whole experience lasted about 90 minutes and was well worth it. Similar to the bull fight, it's near the top of the cultural list for things to do in Spain.

The next morning we caught an early train to nearby Toledo, which I wrote a post about before and won't bother repeating most of the sites. But I snapped a few good pictures which I thought and decided to include them. Here's the bridge which connects to the town's edge.
And a good view overlooking the city itself.
Compared to my first trip, our objectives were actually quite different. Since we are both saber fencers in a town famous for sword-making (even the pastry shops sell swords), at the top of our list was to go shopping. A distant second was to eat Paella for lunch, followed by a quick stop of the famous cathedral. Say what you will about our priorities, but there they are.

Here's us fulfilling our first objective.
And I was also in the market for one of my friends who wanted a scimitar, so I decided to send a picture of one to see if he'd like it. His response was that it would be perfect...if he were trying to sack the Great Wall of China.
We went to about a half-dozen places over a span of about 3 hours. She wound up buying an old Spanish replica, and I bought 4 which included two sabers, and old rapier style, and an old Spanish one as well. All are gorgeous and it was well worth the time.

And here I am fulfilling objective number two.
We wound up running really short on time, so our cathedral visit turned out to be really rushed. And by "really rushed" I mean we walked into a side entrance and looked around before running back to the train station. Success!

We got back into Madrid just in time to stop off at some tapas bars before dinner. Here's one such place near my house. The way tapas places work here is that you sit and order a drink, and they give you a small plate of food (the server picks from a variety) which comes free with the drinks. In this picture we had "patatas bravas", or a kind of baked potatoes with mayonnaise, garlic, and chives I believe.
For dinner we dined at a restaurant called "Botin", which according to their Guinness record also happens to be the oldest operational one in the world (open since 1725 and the building 1590). A side note - the famous painter Goya is rumored to have been a dishwasher there in his youth.

The restaurant itself has an interesting layout as it's spread over three or four floors. But everything is obviously very nice white table-cloth, and all the waiters speak several languages to accommodate the international clientele. I actually tried to converse with the waiter in Spanish but he took one look at me and decided English was better.
Their specialty dish is called "cochinillo", which is a roast suckling pig. If made correctly, it is supposed to be brought to the patron's table and cut with the side of a plate (to show its tenderness). We unfortunately did not experience this part, but that dish is in the front in this next picture. The other is the same with lamb. We both agreed the lamb was better.
Sigh...life is so hard sometimes.
After that we met up with other friends at a nearby sangria bar. The place was packed and had live karaoke. Eventually we found a table and went through a few pitchers before we decided to call it a night. By then it was getting late (and we were a bit tipsy), so we said our goodbyes and tried to catch the last metro home. Unfortunately we missed it and decided to walk instead of paying for the taxi. It's fun to be young sometimes.

I took this while walking on Atocha street past the three famous Madrid museums.
We wound up sleeping in a bit the next morning but decided to head to Parque del Buen Retiro (Park of the Pleasant Retreat). I've actually been meaning to give an entire post on Retiro, but decided instead to lump it in here.

El Retiro is sort of like the equivalent of Central Park to New York; its 350 acres are located right in the heart of Madrid and just a short walk from the famous "art triangle" of the city's famous museums. It's completely free and one of the largest public parks in Europe, and when I say it's big I mean it. I've spent close to 3 hours walking around and still haven't seen everything, but the grounds are interspersed with sculptures, monuments, lakes, and plenty of street performers.

The grounds used to be owned by the royal family and were originally constructed in the 1500's before being opened to the public in 1767. There are so many monuments and statues that the park is more like an open-air museum.

Here is just one of the many paths which run through it.
And one of the park's main squares.
The same square from the outside looking in right around sunset.
The main lake where one can cheaply rent a rowboat and paddle aimlessly.
One of the many "smaller" squares.
And I always thought this section looked like it had some sort of Asian influence.
Tall hedges along the paths in this part.
Me trying to pretend that I'm not lost.
And my favorite lake, which is a good ways towards the middle and thus usually not very crowded.
It houses a fountain, waterfall, and lots of ducks & geese. I also especially like how they make a ramp for these little guys...
There is also an entire building adjacent to the lake called "Palacio del Cristal" (Glass Palace) being lent from one of the main museums in Madrid, and as far as I can tell it's just a large one-room greenhouse without plants. Oddly enough, one has to remove their shoes at the front door, so if you look hard enough you'll also notice everyone is barefoot.
As you can tell, the park is a great place to just wander around for a few hours or to take a great book. In our case, my friend and I had bought some wine and food to have a small lunch, and we decided to stop & eat in this area.
We then stopped off at another tapas bar close by for a bit of sangria before her flight. Not a bad weekend at all I'd say!

More pics can be found during our Madrid excursions here, and Retiro pics here.